A “Digital Audio Workstation” (DAW) is any software that allows you to record and mix digital audio tracks. GarageBand, CakeWalk, Cubase, Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Reason… these are some DAWs that I can think off the top of my head. They are software that you have to purchase and install on your computer.

Increasingly there seems to be more Browser-based DAWs. These run off an Internet connection and require no installation.

Indaba Music is one such web service that offers a DAW that they call Mantis. You need to sign up for an account with them (free). Learn more about Mantis from this video:

4) With the Change Pitch option box, tweak the settings as needed. You can shift it up or down… the menu options are quite self-explanatory. If not, just select the option and click on Preview. Or you can always choose ‘Undo’ (file menu > Edit > Undo…) if you don’t like the changes you’ve made.

Give Audacity a try. It’s been a very stable and reliable product. And free too. I tend to use Audacity to complement what I do in GarageBand (for instance, using Audacity to convert file formats — or compress, remove clicks etc. — before importing to GarageBand).

Looperman is a Free pro audio community for musicians, film and video producers, djs and multi media designers.

Members can upload and download royalty free music loops, acapellas and vocals, beats and samples to use in any music software such as steinberg cubase, propellerheads reason, sony acid pro, fruity loops studio, Magix, ableton live, apple garageband etc or macromedia flash projects, video game design or movie soundtracks. All files have mp3 previews .

You’ll also find help and advice in our creative multi media tutorials and members discussion forums and a selection of Free Vsti plugins and fx and FREE audio software.

Once you have downloaded some free loops you can then upload your mp3 tracks for other members to review. What better feedback on your tracks than that of fellow musicians.

As its a community all we ask is that you take part and enjoy the site and if you can upload your loops or acapellas and vocals for other members to share .

My fellow liblogarian, Von Totanes, aka Filipino Librarian emailed me to ask if I knew how to use GarageBand to transpose an imported MP3 from F key to E key. He’s new to GarageBand and said he tried searching for help but couldn’t “make heads or tails of what’s being said”.

I know of two ways to do it in GarageBand: using the “AUPitch” effect or the “Vocal Transformer” effect.

My GB version is iLife ’08. If you’re using a later version, the user interface may be slightly different but the effects should be the same.

BTW, I presume you’ve already imported the MP3 to GarageBand. Once that’s done, select that track and apply either one (but not both) of these effects:

#1 – Using the “AUPitch” effect

[I don’t think the numbers represent the pitch, because how much you adjust depends on your original pitch. So you’ll have to experiment. Like, play a note on the piano or a song with a known pitch.]

#2- Using the “Vocal Transformer” effect

[28 Aug 09] Update: To access the following panels, open up your Track Info panel, i.e. TRACK > SHOW TRACK INFO. Then click on the Details.

The seats were all filled up about 5 mins later. It was standing room only. Mike and Merle (she sings beautifully!) did an excellent job with their demo. I love how they got members of the audience to create tracks as part of their demo.

The demo was also screened at the video at the shop front.

Judging from the number of people who went up to take a closer look and asking Mike and Merle questions, it was clear their demo made an impact.

Nice.

BTW, I created this track as part of my demo session. There were some other ‘advanced’ tricks I wanted to show, but I was mindful of info-overload for the audience.